Hybrid View

Reserve it for the kitchen…

This afternoon my wife drove down to Kentucky to visit some relatives. Perhaps feeling somewhat guilty because I was spending the day cleaning out the garage and watching the kids she surprised me by picking up five different bottles of bourbon on the way home. Her idea was to pick up several inexpensive bottles of bourbon that she thought I had not tried yet. She did it! The five bottles she purchased were Old Weller Antique 107, Rebel Yell, Heaven Hill Ultra Deluxe, Old Bardstown, and Cabin Still.

So I helped myself to some of the Rebel Yell and lined up the bottles at the back of our bar. Being new to them, I read the tasting notes on these bourbons from a couple of books we keep at the bar. We got a kick from the Gary and Mardee Regan’s The Bourbon Companion’s review of Cabin Still. They summarized the Cabin Still bourbon with the following statement, “A flat, herbaceous nose with oak notes, the body is thin, leaning to watery, and the palate is flat and vegetal; the finish is hot. Overall: If someone buys you this whiskey, and we hope they don’t, reserve it for the kitchen”.

Now that gets you wanting to try some. It didn’t even get the line that suggests you use it for mixed drinks. Well Peggy did buy me a bottle so I have a liter of the stuff to drink, but now do I need to get some more recipes that use bourbon?

Re: Reserve it for the kitchen…

I used a whole 750ml minus one drink of Cabin Swill to soak hickory chips in. All jokes aside it was a sportsmans Bourbon in the halcyon days of Stitzel-Weller.Mike Veach had some last year at Bourbon Tour that was excellent. But on the bright side it looks like she is trying to please. A little foray into the fineries of bourbon.

Re: Reserve it for the kitchen…

Todd,
Although I agree with the Regan's impression of this Bourbon, I don't agree with the 'kitchen thing'. If I won't drink it, I sure won't cook with it.
Bobby has the best idea, use it to soak your wood chips (or take the ice off your windshield in the winter... )
Bj

Re: Reserve it for the kitchen…

Just a follow-up to my wife’s trip late August trip to Kentucky. That afternoon she had picked up five different low to moderate cost bourbons that I had not tried yet for our bar. At this point three of them have been finished, one has been opened and thrown away, and one I haven’t had the nerve to open. Here is what my opinions so far in the order that I tried them:

Rebel Yell – Good (interesting flavor)

Heaven Hill Ultra Deluxe – Fair (nothing special but drinkable)

Old Weller Antique 107 – Very Good (I have not found a Weller bourbon yet that I have not enjoyed.)

Old Bardstown – Very Poor. What is this stuff?

In my opinion this was completely undrinkable. I first tasted it on Friday night after finishing the Old Weller and it was horrible. I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth. It made me think of drinking rubbing alcohol, but this had to be psychological since, to my knowledge, I have never actually drank rubbing alcohol. I even went back to one of my top shelf favorites and could not enjoy bourbon for the rest of the evening. I gave it one more chance on Saturday thinking maybe my reaction could have been affected by the fact that my first taste followed drinking the much higher proof Old Weller Antique 107. It was still horrible, so I gave up on it and threw it away. Life is too short. I would have poured it down the sink, but wasn’t sure of the effect of the alcohol on my septic system. This bourbon was definitely not even good enough for the kitchen.

Cabin Still - ??? (After its reputation I haven’t had the guts to try it yet. I thought I would save it for soaking wood chips for grilling as some one suggested.)

Re: Reserve it for the kitchen…

Old Bardstown when at Willetts was a premium brand. How soon they fall so far! At Heaven Hill it is a dog and cat label that they must not like very much. I had the same experience with it, It also slowed me down on digging thru those low shelf HH products. Their JTS Brown and Echo Spring they put a decent whiskey in the bottles. Also I like the JW Dant. The cabin still isn't special, I don't recall that it was as bad as Old Btown.
There is a 10 year old Old Btown that Kvulseen bottles, One wonders if the promise is there.